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Welcome to 'Mr Civil's Blog'! I hope you will visit the blog regularly to keep up to date with news from Highbank Primary School. Regards Mr G Civil

Friday, 11 March 2016

11th March 2016

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY
FRIDAY!

Can you tell
that I’m really pleased it’s Friday?

It’s been a
busy 7 days since the last blog. I was at the governors’ conference all last
Saturday delivering some workshops, on Monday evening I worked with governors
across the Trust around safeguarding and the rest of the week was spent trying
to do my day job! This has included an evaluation of strengths and weaknesses
of the learning provision since December, looking at the impact of the work
we’ve done to improve things further. I’ve been really pleased with the work
children are doing in maths. The emphasis in the new Maths curriculum is on
reasoning and problem solving rather than calculations. Your children will tell
you how they have two maths sessions each day; one for reasoning and problem
solving and one for calculations which we call arithmetic. Children’s progress
in maths since December has been very pleasing. Well done everyone.

The focus
for the remainder of term is on writing. Teachers and I met on Wednesday to discuss
writing provision and make plans for improvements. We will continue to work on
this as a staff team to ensure children’s outcomes in writing are the best that
they can be.

OPEN MORNING. On Wednesday, we had
loads of parents come into school for our third open morning session. The theme
for this one was reading. Parents spent some time with the master (that’s me!)
then went off into classes to join their children. Feedback from parents was
very positive. Feedback for each of the open morning sessions has been really
great and we plan to have some more. I’ve put some pictures of the session on
the blog also.

HARRY POTTER! On Tuesday we had an especially
themed lunch on Harry Potter and Hogwarts. Sharon, in the kitchen, looked as
though she had borrowed a costume from her children! What a ‘magical’ sight!!
Children enjoyed things like Hogwarts Mystic Broth and Hogsmeade Cobbler.

CAUTION IMPS! Our Y6 children went to
the hospital on Monday morning for intensive first aid training as part of IMPS (Injury Minimization Programme for
Schools). Most came back with some part of their body plastered!! We’ve
received such glowing feedback again regarding the behaviour of our children
which makes us very proud indeed.

GOAL! Last Saturday at Notts County FC,
5 of our talented Y5 children went on the pitch at half time to take part in a
penalty shoot-out competition against the club mascots. The score was 4-0 to
Highbank! Great shooting! Those Magpies never stood a chance!

And also
this week, I’ve received a letter from Sir Michael Wilshaw who’s been asking
about us at his office. He is Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools. He’s
written to say well done for making such great progress last year and wishes us
well for the next 12 months.

This weekend
is special. It’s not my birthday, it’s not Mrs C’s birthday, it’s nothing to do
with my children, it’s……..ENGLAND V WALES on Saturday at Twickenham in the
rugby! It’s the most important game of the year! Come Onnnnnnn England! That’s
what I’ll be doing on Saturday, I hope you can join me supporting England to
victory (Miss Williams won’t though!!).

Well, it’s
been an exhausting week. I even went to see the doctor, I was so tired. He gave me some medicine to help me relax
and sleep well. It made me dream though. This voice in my dream said, "On
your marks, get set, go!" and I woke up with a start! So I went back to
the doctor.

He recommended I take a look at
conjunctivitis.com. Now that is a site for sore eyes!

Have a great
weekend. Stay safe and don’t be late on Monday. It’s another packed week ahead.
It’s Sport Relief Day on Friday 18th March. Unfortunately though,
due to unforeseen circumstances, we’ve had to cancel Story Night.